Resident Evil: Retribution - The Official Movie Novelization

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Resident Evil: Retribution - The Official Movie Novelization is a novel tie-in relating to the Paul W.S Anderson series of live-action films, written by John Shirley. As its title suggests, it is the official novelization of Resident Evil: Retribution, the fifth film in the series. The novel was released on September 18, 2012.[1] The novel comes with an original bonus storyline set around the events of the film, starring a clone's attempt to escape the Umbrella Prime complex.

Contents

"Just as she finds a safe haven, free from the Undead, Alice is kidnapped by her former employers the Umbrella Corporation. Regaining consciousness, she finds herself trapped in the most terrifying scenario imaginable. As the T-virus continues to ravage the Earth, transforming the world s population into legions of flesh-eating monsters, Alice must fight her way back to reality in order to survive."

Continuing from the events of Resident Evil: Afterlife, Jill Valentine attacks the Arcadia, resulting in the deaths of many survivors and Alice's capture.

A newly created Alice clone wakes up from a nightmare, having acquired memories of the attack from her predecessor. Due to the conditioning, she believes her fabricated memories to be real, and that she is married to Carlos Olivera's clone, "Todd" and lives in a suburban district of Raccoon City with their deaf daughter, "Becky". In the morning, a group of zombies burst into their room and attack Todd, and Alice and Becky get into the attic to safety. Navigating through the house to jump out the bedroom window, the two run into the streets as the attack continues. They find a cloned Rain, who offers to drive them out of the city. Along the way they collide with a truck and the car is overturned. Alice and Becky get out of the crashed car and enter a house, not realising until it is too late that Rain did in fact survive, too, but was stuck. More zombies barge into the house; one of them walks into the bedroom as the two hide in a closet. Alice fights the zombie off to protect Becky, resulting in both of them falling down the staircase balcony. A zombified Todd attacks and kills the Alice clone as she gets back up.

Project Alice re-awakens inside a white cell in the Umbrella Prime prison complex. There she is interrogated by Jill regarding her reason for betraying Umbrella, and what organization she works for. Jill refuses to acknowledge Alice's own questioning of what happened to her, and where Claire is. She is tortured with white noise at random points to drive her to confess. When the facility's security system mysteriously deactivates, Alice recovers battle armour from a cabinet and escapes down a corridor, ending up in a recreation of Tokyo. She fails to get into a Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department (警視庁,Keishichō?) cruiser, so smashes the window with a chain to steal a handgun from the glove compartment. As people begin walking through the streets, Alice notices a clone of J-Pop Girl attack a Japanese businessman. As the outbreak simulation continues, Alice sees a door open up, revealing another white corridor to run into. Some Japanese clones follow her, but are taken down by the zombies.

Alice enters the Control room to discover the entire staff dead. Finding Ada Wong, Alice discovers Wesker's involvement in the attack. It is revealed that the Wesker killed at Arcadia was a clone, and that the real Wesker wouldn't dream of putting himself in danger. The facility is revealed to be Umbrella's test site for bio-weapons for demonstrations to countries interested in acquiring the T-virus, and is located beneath an old Soviet submarine pen in the Kamchatka Strait. Ada tells Alice that a rescue team is being sent to recover them, but they'd need to meet them at the submarine pen. Meanwhile, Jill investigates Alice's cell for an explanation into how she escaped.

Outside, two armoured trucks reach the submarine pens, though the ice has covered all but an air vent. The team consists of Leon; Barry; Sergei and Tony, with Luthor brought in as an advisor due to his prior history with Alice. The team plants explosives onto the air vent, timing them to go off in two hours, which they judge is enough time to recover Alice. Sergei hacks into Umbrella Prime's systems with Ada's codes, and brings an elevator up for them to access.

Back underwater, Ada explains that Luthor witnessed Umbrella's attack on Arcadia and fishing Alice out of the water. Recovered by the rescue team team -interested in finding Alice- he provided them with the information and joined. Jill and her team of clone troopers enter the Tokyo simulation, now devoid of uninfected clones; they kill a large number of zombies as they head to Control. Entering the room, the troopers take their masks off, showing themselves to be further clones of Rain and One. They recover data confirming Ada's role in the staff killings, and Wesker's dealings with Ada. Also made aware of the rescue team, Jill gives out orders to prevent them from reaching Alice. Understanding that Alice and Ada are still in the room, the team finally begins firing at them, but the two escape down an escape ladder. Back at the submarine pen, a security team is taken out by Leon's team, and they safely enter Umbrella Prime.

Alice and Ada head into the New York area - Times Square - finding that the simulation already running. Ada explains further that when the Global T-Virus pandemic occurred, the facility was re-used for research into effective means of repelling zombie attacks. Back in the pens, Sergei explains to Leon that Umbrella used the leftover Soviet submarines to transport B.O.W.s to buyers, revealing that he used to work for the company. Still in New York, Alice inspects a police car and is attacked by a zombie Rain clone; Ada explains that Umbrella initially only had fifty DNA samples on file, explaining to the reader why there are three Rains.

Still in the Control room, Jill's troopers find Leon's team on the cameras entering a Moscow simulation. Through sound recordings, they listen in on a conversation regarding meeting Alice and Ada in the third simulation, Raccoon City. Knowing precisely where to capture Alice, Jill sees no further use for Leon's team and has Majini Zombies and Lickers activated to deal with them.

As she and Ada arrive in the Raccoon City area, Alice notices movement in a house. Exploring it, she discovers the corpse of one of her clones. Walking upstairs, Alice is confronted by another Majini Zombie and kills it. Becky comes out of her hiding place and runs to Alice, still programmed to think she is her mother. Jill and the troopers move through Time Square on their way to the Raccoon City area. She begins to think about her life again, but the Scarab device regains control.

Leon's team are trapped inside a clothing store in Moscow as Sergei downloads the facility schematics to find a way out. The zombified soldiers are capable of firing weapons at them. A zombie armed with a chainsaw enters and cuts through Tony. Luther stops it from killing Leon. As they wait for the team, Alice brings up a dream she had earlier while she was asleep in the interrogation cell. Ada reveals that clones are telepathically linked to some degree, explaining why Alice feels she knows Becky. Alice promises to look after the girl, taking her back to her home. Jill's team reaches Becky's house. The three exit to face them; one of them is a Carlos clone, confusing Becky. When they refuse to surrender, Jill orders the commandos to have Ada and Becky killed, and Alice if they can't capture her. As they battle inside, Ada gives Alice and Becky a chance to survive, planning to meet up with them later after distracting the troopers. Alice and Becky escape the house as it is destroyed, though Alice is injured after being shot. As they leave the Raccoon City, Alice feels someone is watching her. Alice and Becky find themselves in a recreation of Moscow Metro. They are greeted by the Rain clone who helped Becky earlier. Alice judges her to be trustworthy and hands her a gun, giving her an impromptu training course. Giving Becky to Rain for protection, Alice heads upstairs to the city streets. Back at the house, Ada gets up from the house debris and willingly gives herself up to Jill's troops.

Leon's team is still being subjected to fire from the zombified Russian troops. In response to the rocket launchers which damaged the walls, they have since built a wall out of corpses to protect them. Sergei manages to find a way out and leads the group to the back of the store and breaks a window. They jump out onto the street, where Sergei is grabbed by a Licker's tongue and torn in half. Above the Licker are cocoons containing the Russian clones who were defeated before Leon's team entered the simulation. The creature attacks and Luther, Leon and Barry try to fight it off. The soldiers move around the building to face them. Alice arrives in a car and saves them at the last moment, resulting in a brief chase with a Licker. Leon asks about Ada, prompting Alice to declare her death. Leon is initially upset, but responds that she aways has a plan to get out of situations. They make it to the subway and bury the Licker in the construction wreckage.

Alice and the team meet up with "Good Rain" and Becky, Alice using Ada's HUD glasses to find a way out through the train tunnels. The Licker begins to push its way through the wreckage, determined to hunt them down. In the tunnels, Alice asks Leon why he is working for Wesker; Leon explains Wesker told him of Alice's special powers, which they believe can end the infection. Jill and her team arrive at the station with a handcuffed Ada, but find it blocked off. She learns that Alice and team have already made it to the submarine pens. Jill orders power to be shut down. As Alice and the group head up the elevator, the power goes out and Luther heads out to investigate. They only have eleven minutes left before the surface explosives go off, and must escape now. A Licker appears from an open vent and injures Barry before throwing him into a wall. Becky is grabbed by its tongue and dragged away. "Good Rain" fires at it but it slashes at her with its talons; she is thrown at the wall and killed. Alice is unable to fire at the Licker without risking the captive Becky's death from the fall.

While Leon checks on the wounded Barry, Alice climbs up the ladder to go after Becky. Leon tries to convince her Becky isn't important to their mission and Alice must survive, but he soon backs down. As Luther makes the decision to head into the ventilation with her, Jill and her team arrive. Luther hands Alice a pack of grenades, and decides to stay behind to distract the Umbrella troops. Leon and Luthor fall back to the elevator as Barry elects to fend them off, choosing to be killed in the facility than risk failing the mission. Jill uses Ada as bait to force Barry out. Barry stops firing and giving Leon a farewell he walks right into view and the "One" clone shoots him. Before Barry dies he manages to grab hold of his gun and kill "One" with it. The other troops return fire, killing Barry. The "Carlos" clone makes his way towards Leon and Luther's cover. Wanting to impress Jill - also due to a programming failure - he tries to kill the two, but the detonations from the explosives causes water to flood into the pens, drowning him. The force of the water pushes the elevator up, as well as flooding the entire Umbrella Prime complex, killing the troopers and even the zombified "Todd" back in the Raccoon City area.

Meanwhile, Alice finds Becky trapped in a cocoon in the vent. Becky's signs to Alice that it's a trap, and the woman quickly escapes a Licker's attack with Ada's hookshot. The creature is taken out with a bullet to the head. Alice and Becky rush out as more creature come. The two find themselves in the cloning lab, where they find Rain's production line. Becky begins to have break her programming by having an existential crisis, even finally questioning Alice's identity as her mother. Alice acknowledges that she will now serve as Becky's mother, and throws Luther's grenades at an approaching Licker, killing it along with many production models. They make their way through a service tunnel, where they reach the surface to find Leon and Luther. Alice; Becky; Luther and Leon make it into one of the transport vehicles and Leon drives them away. Inside Alice finds medical supplies and food. She treats hers and Luther's wounds but he appears ill from the injury, which broke his arm.

Sleeping during the trip, Alice has a nightmare about having killed three activists who managed to infiltrate the Hive. It is revealed that it was this act - which led to her becoming the facility's Chief of Security - which led to her realisation of Umbrella's true self. Her dreams then begin to fluctuate between Spence, zombies and Becky, culminating in her being rewarded for destroying the earth with the virus. Alice wakes up to find they are driving through a snow storm. A submarine from the pen rises expectantly through the ice, stopping the vehicle. Jill, the Rain clone and Ada get out to face the group. Rain injects herself with Umbrella's Las Plagas parasite to imbue her with increased strength before attacking.

Ada tries to escape from the fight, and is knocked out by Ada. Leon and the injured Luther fire at Rain. She absorbs the bullets and is able to force them back out. Ada meanwhile begins to fight Jill. Rain kicks Leon into the side of the crashed truck. Alice and Jill fight with their weapons but the scarab device calculates the responses she has to take and Jill maintains the upper hand. Jill kicks Alice into the truck's windshield. Rain knocks Luther out. Jill pulls Alice out and of the windshield using a rod and manages to stab into Alice's injury. Jill grabs her by the throat and pushes her towards the truck's spiked thread wheels. Alice realizes what she has to do, remembering her encounter with Claire before Arcadia, and pulls the device off her. Jill falls to the floor convulsing. The device moves like a spider, trying to reattach itself. Alice fires at it and destroys it as it leaps into the air. As Luther regains consciousness, he picks up the truck's fire extinguisher and bashes Rain's skull in. Rain heals herself and punches Luther right into the chest, killing him.

Alice shouts out Luther's name as he drops dead and she rushes off firing at Rain. Jill has a flashback to her past: her passion to become a police officer; joining STARS; something going wrong in the Arklay Mountains that got her partner killed and been told it was her fault. She remembers Umbrella trying to bribe her after the incident, and then being controlled by them after the outbreak. The sound of Becky calling for her mother shakes up Jill, who looks around and sees Leon alive and well.

Alice receives a similarly-powerful punch from as Luther received. She falls, coughing up blood but stands up only to get hit again. Jill shouts out to Alice and throws her machinegun to her. Alice grabs it and shoots at the ice around Rain. She falls inside the hole and into a zombie-infested room. Leon checks on Jill and helps her up before tending on Ada. They check on Alice, who is bleeding and dying. A pair of Helicopters arrive to rescue the survivors.

Alice wakes up on the helicopter, where she is being taken care of by medical staff. Alice remembers Luther - who's corpse has likely fallen into the sea - and the people lost at Arcadia, Chris and Claire's disappearance and the many clones that died during Alice's attacks on Umbrella.

The dream turns into a flashback: Alice and Spence are working at the mansion. Spence and her are in a relationship of sorts: she cares for him but isn't sure if he feels the same; the neighbours in Raccoon City also aren't convinced of Alice and Spence's marriage. Spence explains about Dr. Issac coming to discuss some things with a Senator by the name of Salter, and that teople have disappeared near the mansion.That night the Senator; his wife and two children arrive with Issac. They talk and have dinner and the wife keeps staring at Spence and flirting with him. As a swinger couple, Salter does the same with Alice, which she doesn't like it. Later Spence explains that Issac has made a deal with the Senator. He doesn't know what's going on but will keep things quiet for a price. Alice is revolted by the idea of having an open sexual relationship while living with Spence; he explains that this is part of their job, since they are encouraging the Senator to keep to his promise. Alice goes through with it, and cries after the Senator leaves, feeling betrayed and degraded.

Alice wakes up from the dream as the helicopter lands for fuel. She doesn't want want to go to Washington DC to meet Wesker, despite her previous ordeal with the Umbrella Chairman being the action of his clone. The refueling area is protected from the zombies by a fence, but they begin crowding around and eat a soldier when it finally gives way. Alice and Jill fight off the zombies as everyone retreats to the helicopter. Finding the fuel line still connected, Alice gets back off the helicopter to disconnect it and she and Jill spray the lost station with fuel. As the helicopter takes off, a soldier blows up the fuel station, burning the zombies clustered around it. Alice awakens after another nap to find herself landed in Baltimore. She asks Jill if they really should visit Wesker, still remembering her encounter with his infected clone. Jill responds by saying that there's nothing left in this world, and Wesker could be telling the truth about knowing the key to survival. He would also be close by, Jill adds, so they can kill him if he falls back on his word.

The survivors finally reach DC, where the helicopter lands on the White House roof. Alice is immediately introduced to an Umbrella soldier named Grady, who she knew from working at the Hive. He offers them further medical attention ahead of the meeting with Wesker. They are briefly led through the building to the sound of explosions outside. Alice is brought inside the Oval Office where she finally meets the real Wesker. He injects her with the T-virus, explaining that her ability to bond with the virus makes her Umbrella's ultimate weapon. Taking the group back to the rooftop, Wesker reveals that the soldiers at the White House are the last uninfected humans on the planet. As the guards turn their searchlights on, thousands of zombies; zombie dogs; giant Lickers; giant spiders and Executioners can be seen encircling the White House walls, as Kippepo take down a helicopter.

The bonus storyline begins with a young girl named Dori - engineered to look fifteen years of age - as she observes Alice and Ada walking through the New York area. She is a rare self-aware clone, having been freed from the cloning facility by JudyTech - a staff member and possible clone - and hidden away to be taught how to fight. Dori has been hiding for some time, having previously gotten caught up in the same Tokyo simulation Alice witnessed. She leaves her hiding place to go look for Judy, who rescued her to fulfill her wish to have a daughter of her own.

Moving through Times Square, Dori is attacked by a zombie Alice clone, which she kills thanks to Judy's training. Leaving through the exit into the utility tunnels, Dori evades a group of security personnel, ending up in a bathroom. Judy walks into the bathroom, having saw her on the camera feed she was monitoring. The facility compromised, Judy gives Dori a fake scarab device they can wear to get past security and escape.

The two arrive at the submarine pen to find that Leon's team has killed the security guards on this floor. Judy explains that they are leaving because she wants Dori to see the real world for once. Climbing aboard one of the submarines, Dori heads to the kitchens to look for food. She is caught by a mechanic named Tom Pepper, who eventually lowers his gun; he explains that he was rescued by Umbrella, who needed survivors to repair their machinery. Dori takes the gun as he puts it down and aims at him. Judy arrives in the kitchen to ask for food, finding Tom being held up. Dori puts the gun down as they hear gunfire coming from the pen. After the shooting goes away, they begin eating pork with beans.

An explosion is felt from the surface some time later, followed by water falling on from outside the complex. A group of controlled Umbrella soldiers enter the adjacent submarine in time to escape being washed away. Tom instinctively gets his gun back as Judy and Dori hide. He later regrets his decision, and hands it back to Judy so she can be safe. The submarine survives the submerging, and Judy and Tom decide that they should take control of it to escape. Moving through the ice, they pass an infected Rain, who struggles to swim to them.

Catalina Island is inhabited by four survivors: Jack Tannager; his Buddhist uncle Chung, and a gay couple, Bim and Lony. Chung claims to have had a vision where a submarine comes towards them. The survivors are welcomed by two men and a woman, who have taken to traveling on a boat. They leave soon after, having come to the island to seek help with their boat.

Back on the sub, Dori and Tom find a secret chamber of preserved Las Plagas Undead, which they re-seal to avoid any incident. They later surface the submarine. As the three stand on the deck, they are fired upon from the island. Tom jumps into a raft and waves his white shirt as a flag, hoping they'd stop firing. Chung heads to the shore to greet Tom as Jack calls off the attack. Tom eventually comes clean about the Undead cargo after having introduced himself by saying there were only three people on board. He is given permission to paddle back to the submarine and collect the other two for a more formal welcome. Judy and Dori bring their food supplies back with them while Tom and Jack take deal with the Undead.

Tom sends the submarine further out and prepares to scuttle it. As the power goes out, the two are forced to block the hatch to prevent the Undead from escaping after waking up. While Jack heads out to urinate, the Undead smash the hatch; unable to take them out with his weapons, he runs back to Tom. The two run to the top deck with a flammable container and Tom tries to light it, now planning to destroy the submarine from the inside. He drops his lighter in the water, forcing Jack to fish it out. Tom succeeds in lighting the vessel on fire as the Undead begin to make their way up the ladder. The two swim back to shore as everyone celebrates.

Retribution contains aspects from both the Anderson films and their former DeCandido novelizations. Aside from the inclusion of extra subplots, there are several actual differences from the Anderson series.

The Wesker killed in Afterlife is confirmed to have been a clone, with the Wesker in Washington, D.C. being the "real" Wesker. This differs from the film, which features a distant parachute, suggesting his survival and shared identity with the Retribution character.

The Red Queen is completely absent from the novel, giving the impression Jill Valentine is running Umbrella Prime under the command of an unknown third party.

An added suggestion late into the novel establishes Leon as a former member of S.T.A.R.S. and Jill's teammate. While this was derived from newspaper props used in Apocalypse, it was ignored in the film when the two finally did meet.

The ending fight against "Bad Rain" is different from the film, featuring Rain mutate due to her Plaga parasite.

The encounter with the Undead in the New York test zone no longer features Axe Men, and instead has Alice encounter an Undead Rain clone.